Tuesday 16 April 2013

Outrage



Hilariously, Outrage is Takeshi Kitano's idea of a commercially appealing gangster film. If the people want him to move away from introspective whimsy and double back to Yakuza carve 'em ups, that's exactly what he'll give them. The writer-director has spoken about the film being conceived as a vehicle to deliver a series of horrific injuries and deaths that he'd thought up but never previously found a use for. Thus Outrage operates like an airless murder factory. Various criminal gangs manufacture justification for their atrocities, then ruthlessly deliver on this violence. No-one is particularly sympathetic, we learn nothing about anyone beyond their ability to sit around waiting to be brutalised This is criminality as a state of nihilistic, cosmic, indifference. Outrage demonstrates the same sense of humour that brought befuddled Famicom fans a video game like Takeshi no Chosenjo, a prank title in which players were forced to complete a series of mundane, and extremely irritating, tasks to fractionally advance gameplay.

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